Sarah Chrisman lives life exactly as it was in the Victorian era

COULD you wear a corset everyday, wash all your clothes by hand, and only cook recipes from 200 years ago?

This is the way Sarah Chrisman lives. The 33-year-old from Seattle is obsessed with the Victorian era. She lives her life exactly like those in the 19th century, and she's written a book about her unusual lifestyle, titled Victorian Secrets: What wearing a corset taught me about the past, the present and myself.

"Some people feel they were born in the wrong place, or in a body of the wrong gender. I have simply always felt that I was born in the wrong time," she writes in a blog post for xojane.com.

Mrs Chrisman has always been obsessed with the Victorian era. While other kids were begging to be taken to Disneyland, she wanted to visit every museum in town.

She met her husband Gabriel at college and luckily he also shared her love for all things 19th century. They save up money to fill their home with old school items that give their life more authenticity and ease.

"Item by item, we bring the past that touches us into our everyday lives.

"Through great and small occasions, we continue. Learning to write with a straight pen dipped in liquid ink was a laughter-filled process through which my husband and I helped each other."

Now the couple live in a house built in 1888, with no "electronic buzzings". Sarah winds mechanical clocks each morning, and they use kerosene for heat in the winter. The grocery store down the road has been operating since 1895.

Sarah looks quite out of place in modern settings. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

Mrs Chrisman makes all of her own clothes to fit a Victorian-era shape, rides a 100-year-old penny farthing bicycle and cooks with the guide of 19th century women's magazines. She washes her hair with castille soap and does her hair in period styles each morning.

As a special gift, she received a corset as a gift for her 29th birthday from her husband. Trying one on for the first time changed everything.

"There was something enchanting about the image the first time I saw my corsetted form in a mirror's silvered glass, as if that figure had at last banished the hex of modernity."

Mrs Chrisman has narrowed down her waist and says she now feels more comfortable in her own skin.

Sarah's collection of corsets. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

But it's not always smooth sailing. Apart from the obvious stares and whispers, she's received a lot of criticism for her lifestyle choice, including hate mail and taunts from children. "

"This is not an easy life," she writes. "People seldom understand lives which are different from their own, and often do not accept them."

"This is not the critics' life, it is mine: the one I have always wanted, and feel I was destined for."